The Fresh Snack Program, now a farm-to-school program of the Youth Farm Project based in Danby, has announced that 305 students in Caroline Elementary School have started to receive fresh classroom snacks, becoming the fourth school to benefit from the program in the Ithaca City School District.

Yellow watermelon from Stick and Stone Farm in Trumansburg, and tomatoes from the farm in Danby, will be the first featured snack items paired this school year. FSP replaces less nutritious snacks that parents or teachers otherwise pay for, increases access to fresh plant-based foods, familiarizes students with healthier food choices, and connects youth with their local food system.

Caroline School principal, Mary Grover, says, “We are thrilled to be partnering with the FSP and ICSD Nutrition Services to bring healthy snacks, some locally grown by children in the Ithaca community, to our students. The FSP, combined with Cool School Food lunch entrees, Caroline’s vegetable garden and our Farm to Table Event are increasing awareness about eating healthier at our school. I look forward to building upon this partnership to do even more for our community.”

Fresh classroom snacks in Ithaca launched at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School in 2008 through a collaboration between the Coalition for Healthy School Food and GreenStar Community Projects. After Martin, the FSP expanded to Enfield Elementary School in 2014, and Belle Sherman Elementary School in 2015.

A new partnership with local food business Crooked Carrot in Danby will allow the FSP to serve more local, organic fruits and vegetables than ever before. Crooked Carrot is a local foods processing kitchen that purchases 100 percent of its fresh ingredients from over 20 local farms. Starting this school year, the company is ordering ingredients, processing them into finger food, and delivering them in bulk to the ICSD central kitchen, at Boynton Middle School, for distribution to the four FSP elementary schools.

Crooked Carrot founder and owner Silas Conroy says, “This new partnership with the FSP makes us very excited to be able to use our competencies in local sourcing and processing to work on very different kinds of problems in the food system, such as access to healthy food and child nutrition.”

Julie Bakos’ second grade class at Enfield Elementary School was one of ten ICSD elementary classrooms to visit the Youth Farm last spring for a farm field trip. Students planted seeds, explored the compost, and met the chickens, before harvesting ingredients for a fresh snack they prepared and ate on site.

In June, the Youth Farm Project became home to the Fresh Snack Program as part of its merger with Wood’s Earth, another local nonprofit. This merger has allowed the FSP to tie together elementary education with teen-focused food and farming programs. Lehman Alternative Community School students will be involved in three off-campus projects that feed into the FSP.

“These projects are a perfect example of how education can offer our young people avenues for learning that empower them to make positive changes in their world,” says Dan Flerlage, a teacher at Lehman and co-founder of the Youth Farm.

Robin Schwartz, from the Community Arts Partnership, will be running a four-session workshop called “Controlling Clutter Before it Controls You,” from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., beginning Thursday at the Partnership offices, 171 E. State Street in Ithaca. Cost is $210. If interested, go to https://robindeclutter.wordpress.com/homeworkshops/.

Brooktondale volunteers

Help is needed to help make this year’s Brooktondale AppleFest a success! Volunteers can sell quilt tickets (contact Nancy Hall at hallupholstery@yahoo.com), bake a cake for the cake wheel (contact Mark Hall at mhh10@cornell.edu), work the day of the festival on Oct. 15, or attend a pie bee from 5 to 8 p.m Thursday, 1 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, or 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday at the Brooktondale Community Center, 524 Valley Road. If you would like to sell your goods or crafts at the festival, contact Carol at c.barra@att.net.

Blood drives

There will be two blood drives held on Saturday. One is at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from 8 a.m. to noon, and another is at Groton Community Church, at the same time.

4-H week

More than six million young people across the country are celebrating National 4-H Week from Oct. 2-8. More than 5,000 youth participate in 4-H programs in Tompkins County annually. For a list of events still available, visit http://ccetompkins.org/4-h-youth.

Cemetery meeting

The annual meeting of the Cooper Cemetery Association will take place at 7 p.m., Wednesday at the Brooktondale Fire Hall, 786 Valley Road. The Cooper Cemetery is at 101 White Church Road in Brooktondale. For more information, contact Bob or Carine Kenyon at 607-539-7927.

Fun on Slow Lane

The Great Room at Slow Lane will be filled with music and dancing, including Contra dancing at 8 p.m. on Fridays, Scandinavian dancing at 2 p.m. Sunday, tradition Irish music with four-time All-Ireland fiddle champion Dylan Foley and accordionist Dan Gurney at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 13, and an old-time square dance at 8 p.m. on Oct. 14. For more information and directions to Slow Lane, call 607-273-8678.

West Danby

The West Danby Fire Company will present its annual fall Craft Show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 15, with live music from 11 to 1. For sale in the kitchen will be coffee, donuts, cider and a chicken barbecue, but be advised, the chicken dinners sell out fast! The fee for a vendor spot is $10 with one table and two chairs provided for each spot. For more information, contact Marrell at 607-564-0020.

October

I love the sights, sounds, and smells of October. I enjoy the changing of the seasons, and autumn is my favorite one. So, Happy Fall, Y’all!

Sympathy

My thoughts are with Jill Epstein Green, from Newfield, and her family, on the loss of their beloved “Bubby,” Lois A. Epstein. A few years ago, Jill’s class at Newfield Elementary School hooked up a classroom phone so the students could talk with my Dad in Texas about his experiences as a World War II veteran. Shortly after that, he received such a lovely note from one of Jill’s students thanking him for his service, and this all meant a great deal to my dad. Losing a parent is a lasting heartbreak that so many of us well understand.

Southern Tompkins Town Talk appears weekly in the Ithaca Journal. Contact Gay Huddle at 273-6530 or gayhuddle@hotmail.com with stories from the Danby, West Danby, Newfield, South Hill and Brooktondale neighborhoods.